Our Great High Priest

Open with an update on chaplaincy.

We will reapply and are working with the endorsers and others to make sure that we are acting in God’s will and that we are doing what we need to do to be picked up.

Prayer

The last couple of weeks we have been looking at the first 2 sections here in chapter 7. In those we saw the author of the book of Hebrews make two basic arguments about why it is important that Christ be our high priest in the order of Melchizedek. The first thing he did was to compare Melchizedek to Abraham, and by extension to the levitical priests, and show that Melchizedek’s priesthood was greater than the levitical priesthood. We talked about the fact that Melchizedek and his priesthood was also a shadow of Christ.

Last week we looked at the need for a better priesthood to come. We looked how Christ was restoring the direct relationships between believers and God. How this was part of God’s plan to restore perfection as was seen in the Garden of Eden and will be seen in Christ’s kingdom.

Today we will look at his final three points as he will look directly as Christ and His role as high priest to show that Christ is greater than any other priest.

Hebrews 7:20–28 NKJV

20 And inasmuch as He was not made priest without an oath 21 (for they have become priests without an oath, but He with an oath by Him who said to Him: “The Lord has sworn And will not relent, ‘You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek’ ”), 22 by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant. 23 Also there were many priests, because they were prevented by death from continuing. 24 But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. 25 Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. 26 For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; 27 who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. 28 For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son who has been perfected forever.

The first way in which Christ is greater is that he became a priest because of an oath.

Hebrews 7:20–22 NKJV

20 And inasmuch as He was not made priest without an oath 21 (for they have become priests without an oath, but He with an oath by Him who said to Him: “The Lord has sworn And will not relent, ‘You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek’ ”), 22 by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.

20. The levitical priests did not have an oath from God. The reason seems to be that God was not going to make an oath knowing that they would be replaced with Christ.

21. Christ was pries because of an oath that God made.

22. This is back to the discussion we had last week. Abraham was given a covenant based on God’s promise, but the Law was given through Moses as a condition of the covenant God made as the people were entering the land. By backing out to the Melchizedek order Christ is priest of a covenant based on God’s promise and not contingent on our obedience to the Law.

The Second reason that Christ is greater is because he is eternal.

Hebrews 7:23–25 NKJV

23 Also there were many priests, because they were prevented by death from continuing. 24 But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. 25 Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

23. God’s oath said that Christ would be priest forever. This is something that other priests could not due. You see, the high priests were appointed for life, but Christ was resurrected and lives eternally. He now lives in heaven, but when he returns he will still be priest for ever. Just as the levitical high priest served in the Holy of Holies, entering the presents of God, so Christ serves in the thrown room of God, in his presence.

Now we can understand this concept of there being different high priests because they died. According to Josephus, 83 high priests officiated from Aaron to the fall of the second temple in AD 70.

We can understand because our Justices on the Supreme Court are appointed for life. Just like chief justices of the supreme court the priests died. They are appointed for life, but we do not still have John Jay as our Chief Justice. If you say “but he resigned” then I would reply with 2 things, Christ never resigns on us, and secondly John Marshall (the 4th Chief Justice) never resigned, yet he is not still our Chief Justice. Christ never dies or resigns, he is our faithful and eternal high priest!

24. We already talked about this, but His priesthood is eternal and never changes.

25. Lets take a close look at “Saving to the utter most since he always lives to make intercession for them.” The first thing we need to recognize is this is not talking about eternal life. Why do I say that, well it says that he saves through his intercession meaning this is an ongoing process. Eternal life was delivered once and for all at the cross. That deal is sealed! As the author of the book of Hebrews pointed out he took his blood into the thrown room of God and SAT DOWN because it was complete! This means that now He has the time and bandwidth to save us even more! When we are temped, when we fail, when we are tested, when the storms come, and even when we physically die Christ is with us! His interceding on our behalf is what makes it possible for us to grown in our relationship with God. His interceding is what makes it possible for us to do good works, and to eventually overcome and become partners/partakers/companions of Christ himself! You see sin does 3 things to us that Christ saves us from.

First, our first sin puts us on the road to hell, but Christ’s blood takes us off that road and gives us eternal life and the point we believe in him. Just like Abraham was accounted as righteous when he believed (Gen 15:6) so we are given eternal life when we believe (John 3:16)

But the story doesn’t stop there. The second thing sin does is it keeps us from ruling with God, but Christ through His interceding (and the work of the Holy Spirit) makes it possible for us to mature into to believers who can rule with Him!

Finally, Sin destroys our physical life. It takes away our quality of life and shortens our life on Earth. Let me explain that one a bit. If we engage in sin there are consequences. For example, if we murder someone and we get caught we will probably end up in prison. If we are in Texas or Florida we will likely get life in prison or the death penalty. But Christ is there interceding for us. If when we are tempted to murder someone we pray and ask Christ for the strength to overcome the temptation we are saved from those punishments. If we chose to murder anyway we haven’t lost out eternal life, but we will spend time in a prison and may even be executed. In other words we have loss of quality of life and possibly the shortening of our life. I heard a heartbreaking story on the radio of a young man, a believer, who married a woman who had two litter girls with her ex-husband. He was an ex because he had been abusing them. The courts had said that he could get the kids for 6 weeks and the new husband (a BELIEVER) did not trust God, but instead he murdered the ex. He ended up getting life in prison. Had he gone to Christ in prayer Christ could have saved him and his step daughters, but because he took matters into his own hands his set daughters grew up with no father because their abusive dad was killed by their loving stepdad who ended up in prison. On the other hand I hear another story on the radio where a man became a believer and he trusted Christ for further deliverance. He had gambling debt but Christ saved him to the uttermost! He talked about how one by one the collectors forgave him his debts as he witnessed to them and trusted Christ to walk him through this. The last debt was was one where they said either collect or kill him. The collector contacted him and said “either pay up or I’m going to kill you on Tuesday.” He didn’t have the money so he prayed and prayed. Tuesday came and went and he wasn’t killed. Come to find out the hit man went to collect or kill on Monday and was murdered by the person he was going to collect from. These are examples of the physical ways that Christ can save us through is interceding, but think about this for a moment. The idea that any of us could be redeemed and have the chance to reign with Christ.

The third reason Christ is greater is because of his character.

Hebrews 7:26–28 NKJV

26 For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; 27 who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. 28 For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son who has been perfected forever.

26. Unlike the old priests, Christ is perfect. This gives him status to intercede as we saw in the idea of him “saving to the utmost.”

27. As I alluded to earlier because he was perfect he only needed to offer his blood once and for all to cover all humanity. This He doesn’t have to offer sacrifices for His own sins as the old priest did, and His blood was sufficient for us.

28. This perfect High Priest with His perfect offering is only possible because of God’s oath which appointed His Son as the perfect High Priest.

Some of our more Orthodox (by denomination not by orthodoxy, and not just Catholic) brethren believe that they need “priests” in their churches to hear from God, and that without them we cannot know what the Bible means. They add to their clergy priests. While they believe in Christ’s sacrifice they miss out on the rest of His priestly work in our lives. We have a High Priest who, through the Scripture and the Holy Spirit, reveals the truth of God to us and who stands to make intercession on our behalf in the thrown room of God. But because of this we can go directly to Him when we are in need, remember the way that Chapter 4 closed out. We miss out on the full package if we put our trust in an earthly priest.

Christ is greater because of. . .

God’s oath by which He serves

His eternal priesthood

His perfect character

If you need Christ’s salvation and or have questions reach out. . .

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